334 



LIBRARIES, PUBLIC. 



FREDERICK II. HILD, 

 CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



school buildings, to be open evenings, under the 

 supervision of the New York Public Library. The 



children's room is 

 a growing factor in 

 our libraries. New 

 methods picture 

 exhibitions, short 

 talks. attractive 

 surroundings, even 

 .games are used 

 to draw the little 

 ones to the library 

 at an impression- 

 able age. 



The Bureau of 

 Education for the 

 past thirty years 

 has emphasized the 

 importance of li- 

 braries as aids to 

 instruction, and in 

 1896 we saw the 

 establishment of 

 the Library De- 

 partment of the 

 National Educational Association. 



Librarians. Schools and T mining Classes. 

 In the Annual for 1893 a list of these was given. 

 Since then summer courses have been offered at 

 the Cleveland Public Library, the Ohio State Uni- 

 versity, and the University of Wisconsin; the 

 Armour Institute Library School was removed to 

 the University of Illinois in 1897, and elementary 

 classes for training assistants have been put into 

 operation in the public libraries of New York city, 

 Denver, Hartford, Dayton, and Butte (Montana), 

 the New York Free Circulating Library, etc. 



The report for 1900 of the committee of the 

 American Library Association on schools sounds 

 a warning against giving undue importance to 

 these various schools and training classes, and 

 points out the one-sided education that the pupils 

 are apt to acquire. While the question of the 

 relative merit of school training and practical 

 service in a librarian's equipment is touched upon 

 in this report, sight is not lost of the unquestion- 

 able service that these schools have done in sys- 

 tematizing the details of certain work, especially 

 cataloguing. Perhaps those libraries which main- 

 tain preparatory classes for prospective assistants, 

 in which theory and practice are mingled, are 



doing their share 

 in working out this 

 problem. 



Associations and 

 Clubs. These, 

 which do so much 

 for the extension 

 of library interest, 

 have also been in- 

 creasing. A Na- 

 tional Association 

 of State Librarians 

 has been formed. 

 State associations 

 have been organ- 

 ized since 1893 in 

 Vermont (1894), 

 Ohio and Nebras- 

 ka (1895), Illinois 

 llSiMi). (Jeoriria 

 (1897), and Cali- 

 fornia (1S98). The 

 California was for- 

 merly the Central California (formed in 1895), 

 and other such " sectional associations " were 

 organized in southern California (1891), north 



FREDERICK M. CRUKDEN, 

 8T. LOUI8 PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



Wisconsin (traveling libraries), and western 

 Pennsylvania (1896), and Fox River valley 

 (Wisconsin), Bay Path (Massachusetts), and 

 western Massachusetts (1898). City clubs have 

 been formed in the past seven years in Wash- 

 ington, D. C. (1894), Minneapolis and St. Paul 

 (Twin City Library Club, 1897), and Buffalo, 

 N. Y. (1898). 



The American Library Association followed up 

 its exhibit at Chicago (1893) by another one at 

 the Paris Exposition of 1900. This association 

 has added to its useful special sections those for 

 small libraries, large libraries, and State and law 

 libraries. Among the new publications issued un- 

 der the auspices of its publishing section is a 

 List of Subject Headings for Use in Dictionary 

 Catalogues (1895). Here may be noted also the 

 exceedingly useful Catalogue of the " A. L. A." 

 Library of 5,000 volumes for a Popular Library, 

 selected by the American Library Association and 

 shown at the World's Columbian Exposition, pub- 

 lished by the Bureau of Education in 1893, and 

 introduced as " a carefully selected list of books 

 adapted to the needs of a small public library and 

 suitable as a basis for a larger collection." 



A review of the whole subject of library econ- 

 omy is offered in Public Libraries in America 

 (Boston, 1894) by 

 W. I. Fletcher, li- 

 brarian of Am- 

 herst College. And 

 the index to the 

 first twenty -one 

 volumes of the Li- 

 brary Journal is a 

 key to a veritable 

 storehouse of in- 

 formation on spe- 

 cial topics. 



Foreign Libra- 

 ries. The fore- 

 going applies, as 

 is seen, to the 

 United States 

 only. The Sec- 

 ond International 

 Conference of 

 1897 at London 

 (the first was in 

 1877), in which 

 not a few Amer- 

 icans partici- 

 pated, brings us to the foreign field. 



Free public libraries, as we understand them in. 

 the United States, exist only sporadically on the 

 Continent in Europe. Griisel, in the Borsenblatt 

 for Dec. 5, 1898, made a plea for their establish 

 ment in smaller cities in Germany. Beginnings arc? 

 cited as follows: The German Society of Ethical 

 Culture has established libraries in Berlin, Frei- 

 burg, and Frankfort. In Jena this society co- 

 operated with the Comenius Society, hi Dresden 

 the Association Volkswohl opened reading rooms. 



Later reports show that in Germany, especially 

 in the eastern provinces of Prussia, the local au- 

 thorities and educational associations are found- 

 ing libraries with great energy. To the Gesell- 

 schaft fiir Verbreilung von Volksbildung (head- 

 quarters in Berlin) is due the credit of having 

 ahen the incentive to this work and practicall.y 

 furthering it. From 1892 to IS!)!) this society 

 founded and aided 1.103 libraries, and in 1000 (to 

 November) it founded and aided 43S libraries, ex- 

 pending s7.nni) for this purpose. The libraries aie 

 administered partly by reading, library, and other 

 educational associations, and partly by teacher <. 

 ministers, school boards, etc. Unfortunately, the 



WILLIAM I. FLETCHER, 

 AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY. 



